I am not sure if it is a good idea, that the script automatically converts the *.cfg files in /ubcd/custom/ to grub4dos config files.If a user doesn't make its Syslinux config files EXACTLY in the same format, you will get bogus grub4dos config files.

I think it already does that?

Code:

# Get all syslinux config files from /ubcd/custom/, that need to be translated.SYSLINUX_CONFIGFILES_CUSTOM=`find ./ubcd/custom/ -name '*.cfg'`

I suppose grub4dos fdubcd.iso.gz options have been corrected too for the unreleased 5.1a2.

---

Since 7-zip.org published 9.20 FINAL (not beta anymore), maybe its time to update the respective components in ubcd (like 7za.exe and 7z.dll for example).

---

syslinux 4.03 published.

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Which gparted version is included in UBCD/PartedMagic? The help text:

\ubcd\menus\syslinux\hdd\partmgmt.cfg

and

\ubcd\menus\grub4dos\hdd\partmgmt.lst

in ubcd51a1 states it is gparted 0.5.2, but I doubt that's the actual version number.

Also, that option of Gparted from the ubcd menu has help text (stating that selecting that option of the menu will start PartedMagic), but no other options (kernel, append, initrd...), are included, so actually selecting the Gparted menu of UBCD doesn't do anything.

fdubcd -> help -> this option lists available commands, currently in no particular order. Suggestion: make the help list to be displayed in a category + alphabetical order.

---

Suggestion / Thinking out loud:I know that PartedMagic and UBCD are 2 (good) different projects. But, since UBCD is including PM, maybe it would be useful to avoid duplication of included tools? The only condition I thought about, is the minimum hardware requirements. If the minimum hardware requirements to run a specific tool starting from UBCD are the same than starting PM and then running the tool, then maybe the tool could be left out of UBCD? Of course, this would be valid only in the cases where the tool has exactly the same characteristics when running it from Linux (PM) or from DOS (UBCD).

Just in case PM leaves a tool out in a future release, then UBCD could include the tool (again). A tool that gets out from UBCD should have a tutorial (specially, the syslinux/grub4dos menu options) for users to re-add it using customization.

---

I think there are several bootable security/antivirus' tools available out there. Antivirus tools are, generally speaking, adequate when the virus definitions are updated.Starting from the date a new UBCD version is published, the virus definitions are getting outdated every day. So, a user who wants to use the antivirus tools included in UBCD, should run the respective scripts to update them.

So I was thinking that maybe all the files that should be updated using the scripts, should be left out from the UBCD iso image. We, the users, are downloading UBCD with those files, and again downloading the definition updates. So why to download those files twice?

By including the adequate link to the appropriate instructions at the download page, and clearly stating that the original iso image includes the antivirus tools but won't include the antivirus definitions (or any files that could be downloaded / updated with the scripts), should be enough.

Avoiding the antivirus definitions, the UBCD iso image should be several MB less.

---

I though about additional suggestions, but for now I'll leave it for future posts.

I suppose grub4dos fdubcd.iso.gz options have been corrected too for the unreleased 5.1a2.

Yes.

Quote:

Since 7-zip.org published 9.20 FINAL (not beta anymore), maybe its time to update the respective components in ubcd (like 7za.exe and 7z.dll for example).

Added to todo.

Quote:

syslinux 4.03 published.

Already on my todo, since I subscribe to the mailing list.

Quote:

Also, that option of Gparted from the ubcd menu has help text (stating that selecting that option of the menu will start PartedMagic), but no other options (kernel, append, initrd...), are included, so actually selecting the Gparted menu of UBCD doesn't do anything.

Arrggh... that's the secret app I made for myself to clear out all the xxx in case my wife breaks into my PC... Nah, nothing so exciting. Just something from testing the new fdubcd.iso custom.ini support that I forgot to remove. Will be fixed.

Quote:

fdubcd -> help -> this option lists available commands, currently in no particular order. Suggestion: make the help list to be displayed in a category + alphabetical order.

Will add to my todo list.

Quote:

Which gparted version is included in UBCD/PartedMagic?

Will check again in next release when PartedMagic is updated.

Quote:

maybe it would be useful to avoid duplication of included tools?

Are there any duplicates? I thought all the major ones like TestDisk have been taken care of.

Quote:

So I was thinking that maybe all the files that should be updated using the scripts, should be left out from the UBCD iso image.

I prefer having a ISO image that can be used as it is, even if the virus defs are old. Leaving the virus defs out means the antivirus apps cannot be used 1) without a network connection, or 2) without creating a customized UBCD.

Are there any duplicates? I thought all the major ones like TestDisk have been taken care of.

Well, I don't know if the "duplicate" tools are actually duplicate, or there are just 2 different ways to get to the same executable.

If they are actual duplicates tools, I don't know if they are the same version, or if they have the same abilities/characteristics under UBCD than they have under PartedMagic.

UBCD51a1 -> PartedMagic -> Extras Menu

includes HDT, Memtest86+, SuperGrubDisk1, SuperGrubDisk2, MHDD, Plop.

I didn't test them (just saw them listed). Moreover, under UBCD there are 2 MHDD versions, so it can't be the same than the 1 presented under PM's Extras Menu.

The differences on characteristics, or version number, or hardware support, maybe makes it worth to have those tools from both UBCD and PartedMagic. And even if they are exactly the same, maybe it is easier to start some of those from UBCD than starting first PM and then running those tools, specially for older systems. It is possible that the duplicate size is meaningless to worry about this duplicates.

Quote:

I prefer having a ISO image that can be used as it is, even if the virus defs are old. Leaving the virus defs out means the antivirus apps cannot be used 1) without a network connection, or 2) without creating a customized UBCD.

About antivirus tools, you could leave those tools for customization altogether, with tutorials, links to downloads and downloadable scripts (the ones that are currently included, so the CD would still be usable as-is. Or, As I suggested before, just leave the antivirus definitions out from the original UBCD ISO image.

I think having so many other specialized security rescue disks out there, anyone that wants to have an all-in-one UBCD including those antivirus tools can make the effort to customize and update it.

Distributing an antivirus tool that is not up-to-date is probably:

A) giving a false sense of security; andB) using extra bandwidth to download twice the same tool.

The last addition of AVG rescue disk is a complete ISO image of more than 70MB. My suggestion: put a tutorial including links and leave it as customization. Moreover, there are other similar security rescue disks, also distributable as ISO images. Lets add the links to the UBCD Wiki and the steps to add them to UBCD as customization.

In addition to AVG's 70MB, the 3 scripts together are downloading about 150MB, making 220MB downloadable as customization and up-to-date tools.

That's why I think the balanced compromise between complexity of customization, and efficient use of updated tools and bandwidth, is actually:

This reduces the size of the included antivirus tools drastically. The other security rescue ISO images can be simply added with customization (since it is 1 ISO file and 1 menu, instead of several folders and files with updating scripts).

Adding the appropriate "warning" text (in red if you want) about antivirus definitions at the download page (and as part of the changelog) should be enough for most users. The most "lazy" ones, that won't even read a simple and very short warning, are probably better using those ISO rescue disks directly, instead of trying to run antivirus tools from UBCD.

About antivirus tools, you could leave those tools for customization altogether, with tutorials, links to downloads and downloadable scripts (the ones that are currently included, so the CD would still be usable as-is. Or, As I suggested before, just leave the antivirus definitions out from the original UBCD ISO image.

This is something that I am not comfortable with, as my original intention for this project is an ISO image that will run out of the box. Leaving the antivir defs out will render the antivir apps unusable without customization, and that's not something I want for the project.

Now while I understand your points about false sense of security and extra bandwidth, leaving the antivirus defs from the ISO image defeats the goals I have for this project. I would rather have something that the user can use from the get-go, with customization being an optional rather than mandatory step they have to take to get the antivirus apps to work.

Currently (ubcd51a1) the ".\ubcd\boot\antivir\" folder includes syslinux.cfg and grub4dos.lst. The script (for Avira) updates both menus, and also ".\ubcd\menus\grub4dos\others.cfg" and ".\ubcd\menus\grub4dos\others.lst".

By excluding these 2 folders and these 2 files, the UBCD51a2.zip download should be about 120MiB less than a "complete" UBCD51A2.ISO. (Leaving AVG Rescue CD for a simple customization, additionally reduces the download in about 80 MiB less).

4_ (Optionally) open the "temporal" folder and delete the content of the "ubcd-temp" folder.

The user now has an "updated" ubcd51a2.ISO, no matter when (on what date) he downloaded the original ubcd51a2.zip. As you can see, I haven't included in the steps the optional customizations.

For any user who wants to use any tool in ubcd, there is a required minimum knowledge level. For such a user, the required knowledge to successfully follow the above steps is really low. This is specially true for an alpha version.

Cons: instead of a direct iso, the user has to build it from a smaller zip archive (but there is no need to additional tools to do it - at least not under Windows - , and the steps are very simple to follow).

***

As I mentioned, these exact steps are not currently working (with ubcd51a1). I wanted to test these steps under Windows before suggesting them, and the script for updating Avira "failed".

The Avira script (almost) works for updating an existing ".\ubcd\boot\antivir\" folder. But, when the folder has been deleted before running the script (or not included at all, as in the steps above), the new "updated" folder for Avira is created at the following path:

".\ubcd\tools\linux\antivirus\"

instead of creating the correct path ".\ubcd\boot\antivir\". Of course, in this case the menus (for both syslinux and grub4dos) will be wrong.

***

Independently of the above suggestion, an additional problem with the Avira script is the resulting menus' files, either when updating the already-existing ".\ubcd\boot\antivir\" folder (which is the current normal method in ubcd51a1) or when running it after deleting the ".\ubcd\boot\antivir\" folder (as described in the above steps).

After running the Avira script, the following files are changed (among others):

Cons: instead of a direct iso, the user has to build it from a smaller zip archive (but there is no need to additional tools to do it - at least not under Windows - , and the steps are very simple to follow).

I totally understand what you are saying, but what I am saying is, I want a direct ISO.

Quote:

Leaving AVG Rescue CD for a simple customization, additionally reduces the download in about 80 MiB less

I have received your PM about this, and I agree AVG Rescue CD is better left as a customization option. Hence it won't be included in the next release.

Quote:

Then, the resulting menus' files are "Unix-like" text files, instead of being "Windows-like" text files, as they were before the script was ran.

From a functional point of view, this shouldn't be a problem. Most text editors I know (eg. PSPad, Notepad++) that are more sophisticated than Notepad handles Unix text files just fine. AFAIK, syslinux/isolinux and grub4dos handle them with no problem as well.

The reason why they become Unix text files is because they are modified via sed in the script, which I think is unavoidable, since sed is a Unix app. There isn't a switch in sed that selects line ending types, I am afraid.

I understand your point, but I am thinking that it may not be exactly as you say, "shouldn't be a problem".

Part of those menus files (cfg and lst) are also used for other entries.

If a user only updates the antivirus definitions, then everything is ok. But if he uses Windows, and besides updating the antivirus definitions he also wants to customize, then he might have a problem ordering the menu file.

Additionally, IMO it would be better to maintain the same format between the menu files that a user see from Windows.

I would like to add some info for those who may see this issue, and I will add a simple solution to automate this conversion in future releases.

Quote:

Most text editors I know (eg. PSPad, Notepad++) that are more sophisticated than Notepad handles Unix text files just fine

So, here is the info: You don't need to install any additional text editors (eg. PSPad, Notepad++). Notepad doesn't handle unix-like row/line/feed delimiters, but the old MS Editor - EDIT.COM - which is already included in every Windows version, does.

Simply open the appropriate cfg or lst menu file with edit.com, save it (yes, directly, no save as, no nothing, overwrite the original file) and exit edit.com.

Now, this also works if you are using the FreeDOS equivalent of MS Editor, the obviously free EDIT.EXE , and you can use it from DOS (no Windows needed). The manual procedure is exactly the same as with edit.com.

But, to solve this "issue" automatically, Victor could add a simple command to the Avira.cmd script (not to the sh script).

Victor, you can download the Windows version of flip, add it to the Windows tools folder, and add the command line to the Avira.cmd script:

flip.exe -d <filename[s]> ,

where the filenames are the 4 menu files (cfg and lst) that were updated. I'm guessing that <filename[s]> should include the correct path to those 4 menu files.

You may have to check if the command line is "as-as", or it may need a "start" or "call" before the "flip" command.

I hope I was clear enough to explain what I mean.

---

In addition, even if Victor decided to distribute a complete ISO image even for alpha versions instead of a much smaller simple "store" zip with a simple batch , I would like to request to recheck the "problem" I reported about the Avira script updating the antivirus definitions to a different folder instead of the "correct" one.TIA.

The reason why they become Unix text files is because they are modified via sed in the script, which I think is unavoidable, since sed is a Unix app. There isn't a switch in sed that selects line ending types, I am afraid.

When I originally created the sed scripts, they convert first all configfiles from windows to unix line endings. Aftr all the processing is done, they normally are converted back to windows line endings.

Part of syslinux2grub4dos.sh:

Code:

# Convert all config files in /ubcd/menus/syslinux/ (exept default.cfg and main.cfg)# and in /ubcd/menus/syslinux/hdd/ to grub4dos config files.for SYSLINUX_CONFIGFILE in $SYSLINUX_CONFIGFILES; do # Make the correct grub4dos filename based on the syslinux config filename. GRUB4DOS_CONFIGFILE=`echo ${SYSLINUX_CONFIGFILE/\/syslinux\//\/grub4dos\/}` GRUB4DOS_CONFIGFILE=`echo ${GRUB4DOS_CONFIGFILE/%cfg/lst}`

I'm not sure I understood. Are you saying the avira.cmd script should have resulted in "Windows-like" menu files(cfg and lst)?

Is there something wrong with the procedure *I* ran?

Isn't the flip.exe I suggested necessary?

Or maybe the Avira.sh script can be changed/adapted/updated?

BTW, you can download the "flip" source code and is available for several OS's, not only for Windows.

Additionally, clamav stable version is now 0.96.5, so it could be updated in PartedMagic.

Checking the list of programs included in partedmagic.com , I haven't found f-prot antivirus, but it is included in UBCD.

Is there any way to update the program version from the included 6.0.2 to the more updated 6.0.3?

About the fprot update script (which updates the antivirus databases, not the program itself), should it work with F-prot 6.0.3? Or should it be changed in any way for it to work with the 6.0.3 version?

The minimum version of xfprot needed to support f-prot 6.0.3 is version 2.3, and version 2.4 fixes a bug in 2.3. Can it be updated, or it also needs special knowledge/customization?

@Icecube and Victor,

Boot Info Script, http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/ , is something that may interest you to add to UBCD (maybe by means of PartedMagic, but if there is a way to run it with less resources directly from UBCD, that would be even better. Of course, if it is added (to UBCD or PM), it would be desirable to add the tool, not just to make it possible to use it from network connection. Or maybe there are other tools already included that bring the same info in a better manner.

@Victor,

You may want to add .\ubcd\website\index.html to the next alpha/beta, even if it is for the current stable version. Just add the task to make it "current/updated" to your TODO list before the final release

I'm not sure I understood. Are you saying the avira.cmd script should have resulted in "Windows-like" menu files(cfg and lst)?

No, but the script can be fixed in a way similar like I have done it for syslinux2.gurb4dos.sh

ady wrote:

Checking the list of programs included in partedmagic.com , I haven't found f-prot antivirus, but it is included in UBCD.

Is there any way to update the program version from the included 6.0.2 to the more updated 6.0.3?

About the fprot update script (which updates the antivirus databases, not the program itself), should it work with F-prot 6.0.3? Or should it be changed in any way for it to work with the 6.0.3 version?

The minimum version of xfprot needed to support f-prot 6.0.3 is version 2.3, and version 2.4 fixes a bug in 2.3. Can it be updated, or it also needs special knowledge/customization?

I made a module for F-Prot and is isn't included in Parted Magic itself.I will try to take a look at it.

ady wrote:

Boot Info Script, http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/ , is something that may interest you to add to UBCD (maybe by means of PartedMagic, but if there is a way to run it with less resources directly from UBCD, that would be even better. Of course, if it is added (to UBCD or PM), it would be desirable to add the tool, not just to make it possible to use it from network connection. Or maybe there are other tools already included that bring the same info in a better manner.

This code converts unix line endings back to windows line endings:Code:sed -e 's|$|\r|g' > "${GRUB4DOS_CONFIGFILE}"

Thanks IceCube. I will look into adding this in the Avira script.

Quote:

You may want to add .\ubcd\website\index.html to the next alpha/beta, even if it is for the current stable version. Just add the task to make it "current/updated" to your TODO list before the final release

I wanted to download the torrent for UBCD 5.1 alpha 1 to see if it would work with my USB flash drives since my version 5.0.3 won't. I started with the torrent at http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download/ ... so.torrent and got the message "Error 'offline (timed out)' while downloading URL."

I also tried the link at http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd51a1.iso. That one wouldn't work either. It gave the message: "Unable to load "http://ubcd.mirror.fusa.be/ubcd51al.iso":Invalid torrent file!".

Time was 10:10 AM PST on Monday, 12/27/10. I was using uTorrent 1.7.7.

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